Development

Social Impact Investment 2019

The Impact Imperative for Sustainable Development

This publication is a sequel to the OECD 2015 report on Social Impact Investment (SII),
Building the Evidence Base, bringing new evidence on the role of SII in financing
sustainable development. It depicts the state of play of SII approaches globally,
comparing regional trends, and assesses its prospects, with a special focus on data
issues and recent policy developments. Importantly, it provides new guidance for policy
makers in OECD and non-OECD countries, as well as providers of development co-operation,
development financers, social impact investment practitioners and the private sector
more broadly, to help them maximise the contribution of social impact investing to
the 2030 Agenda. In particular, it provides four sets of recommendations on financing,
innovation, data and policy for delivering on the “impact imperative” of financing
sustainable development.

Social Impact Investment markets are growing all around the world in both OECD countries as well as developing countries.

There is an “Impact Imperative’’ for a shared understanding of how specifically impact of collective investment in sustainable development is measured.

Without a clear definition and consensus around how to measure the “impact’’ of investment made by the private sector, we will never be able to adequately assess how effective such funding is in sustainable development.

Mainstream investors have increasingly been moving from a strictly sale focus on financial returns to one also seeking to mitigate environmental, social, and governance risks.

There were approximately USD 22.89 trillion assets under sustainable investment strategies in 2016.

Blended, SII, and green finance together form a set of effective approaches and tools to leverage private finance. All three financing approaches can help address the financing gap for the SDGs and COP24 Paris Agreement.